Why Netflix's Cowboy Bebop Doesn't Work 

The love triangle was part of the original anime as well, it was just never explicitly stated. It's clearly shown in the Green Bird sequence though that Julia was with Vicious before she was with Spike

the best thing the actress could've done is say NOTHING, the entire blame would be tossed on the Netflix itself and it will die down WAY quicker. Her small video added fuel to an ember and start a forest fire.

Agreed 100%. The only positive thing that might arise from the Netflix show is that it hopefully encourages people to seek out the original animation.

Faye was taking a passenger flight in the orbit of earth when the gate blew up and destroyed half the moon and causing the more frequent asteroids to rain down on earth (reason why its not inhabitable anymore). she and many others were rescued by a responce team, kept on cyro stasis till her injuries were healed and awoken from her coma later with memory loss. she is around 70 years old. As for the netflex crapshoot.. probably better to forget about it. i wouldn't recommend that to my worse enemy.

Live-action anime remakes will almost always flop... Folks really need to learn this.

Can't believe they actually thought they would get a Season 2 no matter what you do with your live action anime it has an 80% chance to fail only good adaptations I have seen are the Ruroni Kenshin films, Alita, Speedracer, and some Japanese live action adaptations of shows where there isn't a lot of supernatural stuff can't wait for the One Piece live action and make fun of it.

It doesn't work because it's a soulless cash grab remake that intended to fix what isn't broken. But that's just what I gathered from hero hei's videos.

I’m so glad someone else pointed out how badly they screwed up Jet’s partner and how instead of being a layered character who feels guilt over betraying his partner and allows Jet to kill him, he’s instead just a mustache twirling “oooo I just wanted money hahahah!” ridiculous one dimensional character we’ve seen a million times already

I got about five episodes into the Netflix series before I stopped. I couldn’t stand the pain anymore. Like you, I hadn’t seen the anime before. I bought the full series and even though I’m only on the second disc of the series, I’m enjoying the anime a lot more.

Just a small nitpick about your analysis: Julia was in a relationship with Vicious initially and its portrayed as much in the anime. She has an affair with Spike and they're supposed to run away together but Vicious finds out.

The cinematography by itself is so cringe that my rectum has swallowed itself and is slowly consuming my body. You know what it reminds me of? Those weird ass live-action video games on those random 90's consoles where every actor delivered their lines looking directly at the camera.

One tiny nitpick in the anime they never definitively say Spike is dead or alive. It’s a Schrödinger’s cat situation.

The thing that always struck me about Daniela Pineda's comment, is that everybody ignored the fact that Faye is Singaporean in the original anime, and Pineda is Mexican. But Faye being Singaporean is a huge deal, like her photos from the past include famous Singaporean landmarks, and while I myself am not Singaporean, I have heard from Singaporean people that Faye's struggle with past and future identity really resonated with them, because they Singaporean youth are stuck in a country that is heavily influenced by both Eastern and Western ideals.

It's actually insane how obsessed media has become with nostalgia currently. Not only in terms of reboots and remakes but also in recreating past aesthetics. Eventhough we recently get so many reboots that "nobody asked for" we're still watching these out of curiosity, familiarity or nostalgia, which keeps the cycle going. So I'm not even sure the producers care about the critics since everyone (me included) is watching those anyways.

And people still think the One Piece adaptation will be good... How tf would they manage to do justice to an even crazier and more cartoonish show??

I will never understand why Live action adaptions aren't just THAT, ANIME BUT LIVE ACTION, like why do they think they have to change entire characters or structure of the show , just do all the same things but live action as opposed to this garbage.

When it was first announced, I thought the Netflix adaptation was going to be new stories set in the anime's continuity (kinda like how the Bebop movie took place between episodes 22 and 23) and I think that would have been the better direction to take. Though let's face it, *any* direction probably would have been a better one

"Why Netflix's Cowboy Bebop Doesn't Work" It was made by Netflix. I solved it.

I think a good idea for a cowboy bebop adaptation would be a live action prequel movie exploring spikes origins /past.

Would rather see Dragonball Evolution, and Netflix Death Note. Because at least those can be funny bad. This is Avatar live action bad.

I knew it was gonna be crap since the whole controversy with Faye. She's basically playing the same caustic, snarky role she did in Jurassic World.

Im still amazed at how badly they managed bebop when is arguably one of the easiest anime that could be adapted. Dragon ball?. The very world is over the top and wouldnt translate well. Death note? L' s weird anthics would had never worked in live action. But cowboy bebop is a more grounded show that those two.yes is set in a futuristic western but so does firefly and that one has amassed a cult following.the only character that has the general anime vibes is Ed everyone else could had been easily transcribed into a live action script.but no they made faye a total idiot and vicious is a complete joke of a villain.and my god what have they done to julia...

The worst characterization was Gren. The series really did him a huge disservice .

At this point, I think viewers have spent more time watching RU-vid videos about why this show sucks than they did watching the Netflix show itself

Naruto it's not the best example for good filler(90% of it contradicts the source material and even its own canon), fairy tail has the best filler. The manga it's veeeery different then the anime

I couldn't make it past the first episode. They tried to make the Bepop crew clones of Tony Stark, Deathpool, and Harley Quin. Anime is not the MCU, and Cowboy Bepop deserved better than a half hearted forumulaic makeover.

Faye’s outfit is literally vital to her character.

@9:34 Love you video! Just wanna help with a correction- Faye wasn't in a car crash, she was in a space shuttle accident.

I just finished Ballad of the fallen angels (the OG one) for the first time, this is perfect timing

Great video now I’m waiting for the armegadon video of the flash

10:50 “This is divine retribution!!” -Jet Black (1998 Bebop)

Something I have heard constantly about any live action adaptation is "well we have to change stuff, because fans want something new and different!" Like not when saying "This won't work in live action." The thing is, I only hear this for anime and video game live action adaptations, which is dumb for multiple reasons because 1. Not only are members of both fandoms used to 1:1 adaptations (like manga/light novel get made into anime with minimal changes, and when they deviate, you get Promised Neverland) Plus video games get remake/Remastered all the time. 2. The most successful anime and video game adaptations usually are the most accurate ones. Kenshin, Speed Racer, Sonic 2, Arcane. Only anomaly I'd say is the Paul WS Anderson Resident Evil films which while I hate that man (for needlessly endangering stuntworkers), his RE were financially successful. Then he tried Monster Hunter, that failed so...

It's funny how often western adaptations of anime get the look right, but fail because they simply don't seem to understand the themes, or the core dynamics that make these shows work. It's like you can tell somebody actually watched the show, but you can also tell they didn't get it, and that's even before you add the problem that every entertainment now has to tick off a list of agenda qualifiers and it's a wonder anybody gets excited when any live-action adaptation of a manga or anime is announced because you know that the odds of it being a good adaptation are greater than winning the lottery.

The thing with Pineda's video for me is that even though I knew there was no way it could touch the anime, I was still willing to give the show a shot at that point. There will always be people as you point out complaining about minor aesthetic changes and move on. I personally had zero problems with Pineda's casting or the outfit, despite it removing some of her female fatale attributes that are part of her character. I reasoned "stunt work", and was ready to leave it at that. But to come down with such abrasive sarcasm that talks down to your potential audience? Then it turns out the writers had already butchered everything else to make her a watered-down, un-nuanced (see your f-bomb criticism) Revy from Black Lagoon, which isn't her fault. So as others have said, had she remained quiet, she'd probably still get the acting praise that Mustafa Shakir got despite everything else around them being a train wreck.

I'm a super fan of the original anime, it's my favorite anime and for me it is something perfect. Then having said that I tried to watch the netflix adaptation without high expectations, I wasn't so thrilled about the cast selection to begin with but even after watching the anime I tried to watch it as it's own thing. To put it simply it's a bad show, wanted to drop it after the first few episodes but if any finished watching it just because of obligation. So that's the problem, the show is bad and quite dull and plain that it's not going to appeal for new audiences and it's just going to get upset a large portion of the fanbase of the original show. I didn't mind that the actor playing as Spike is very old to play him, he sort of nails his laid off demeanor. I didn't mind the girl playing as Faye, or the change in costume, even I can get past her change in peronality and her being very annoying at times. Jet was probably the best one out of the three but overall I think they all did the best they could with what they were given. Then even if you don't mind all those changes it's still a bad show, I think it's ok to try to give it your own twist to something we already know but ultimately it was poorly made and poorly executed it. The worst part by far is the whole subplot trying to expand on Spikes's back story with the Syndicate and what they did with Vicius and Julia. One of the strong points of the anime, at least for me, is that it was episodic. There are subplots about the past of each member of the Bebop but it's something very subtle and sporadic. I remember getting back from school and watching whatever episode they were airing that day and I would enjoy it without having the need to watch all the previous episodes. Towards the end there's a resolve to all those subplots but like I said is something they brought very subtly, and the whole direction of the anime is something very tasteful with a lot of layers to it. With the live action I don't know if they were promised there was going to be a second season or what, but the every episode feels very slow and boring. I blame mainly to the whole story arc with Vicius and Julia, it interrupts a lot of the action and story taking place with the Bebop crew and that's why I think it feels so dull. Then it wouldn't be so much of a problema if those new backstories were remotely good, but they're terrible filled with super generic and cheesy lines. They were trying to build up for this big finale and a second season but they forgot about the bounties and episodic nature of the anime; it didn't flow right. Like I said I can't blame the actors, think they did ok with what they were given but nothing can save poor writing and bad direction. They shouldn't have taken for granted a second season and just focused to deliver a solid experience from the get go.

"So I decided to watch Netflix Bebop first" to Quote Jet Black "Bad move, Spikeo"

The additions made to Jet's story regarding him having a family might seem familiar to some people out there. Because (as Glass Reflection noted in his review) they ripped off the 1st Ant Man movie. They didn't really change much about the plot. It's just a ripoff. The more aggravating parts of the writing came about because the writers were also trying to imitate Joss Whedon's writing. I saw that coming as after I heard the announcement of an American "live-action" Cowboy Bebop I IMMEDIATELY thought they'd make it into a Firefly knockoff, but I was only PARTLY correct as they were apparently "inspired" by Buffy The Vampire Slayer & such too. Apparently, they just couldn't help trying to imitate his quippy dialogue either! As for Daniella Pineda's insulting reaction to the original Faye's outfit, it was uncalled for & I honestly think she DIDN'T see the original show BEFORE she made the video. Faye Valentine in the anime was meant to invoke the femme fatale archetype from old detective noir stories in addition to helping her use her looks & charisma to get at her targets or distract guys by getting them to think with their "little head" if you catch my drift. She was also partly based on Fujiko Mine from the anime classic known as Lupin III. If you haven't seen it, you should! Finally, Bennett the Sage has also pointed out that the relationship between Vicious & Julia is reminiscent of Daenerys Targaryen with her brother & I'd add that live-action Vicious' characterization is also partly based on Joffrey Baratheon as well.

I quit watching the show after 3 episodes. I couldn't stand the villains and constant use of Dutch angels.

7:10 I can understand the intention behind what she is saying and I can sympathize with how their entire gender has been represented at least design wise, but her hostility and hyperbole take that weight away. Nelliel is a character I like and on the surface she's just another skinny, big anatomy, barely clothed wamen. On the other hand her espada outfit was very conservative and she's a strong character who stands up for what she believes in.

Super random but your name is the same as my cat's. Lol. Subscribed just for that. This is a great video and I agree with all the reasons you point out. Also like your Flash videos too. 👍

I was really excited for this show because of the trailers but the show is boring I have admit, so many went wrong with live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop…….

Hearing the summary of Faye's story only reminds me of what a good character she actually was. See, these are the messages people want in their media. Good messages! Messages about life in general that everyone can take to heart. Aside from maybe Vicious, I hate Netflix Faye the most. Og Vicious was just a cool villain. But Faye was actually such a likeable and relatable character, especially once we learned more about her past.

Always happy to hear someone new enjoyed the anime. It’s one of the best

At least they canceled the show while they were ahead. They’re making a Death Note movie 2! Netflix must be on some good stuff to think we want that

The live action Cowboy Bebop was not very entertaining as I expected it to be. Sure the original anime has its flaws but it was a classic masterpiece that would never be replicated. Even in fan made live action. The way Netflix wanted to get viewers in their stats shows simple cash grab and agenda pushing. Although the live action show wasn’t pushing wokeness really. The original anime creator wanted to expand the audience beyond Japan but wasn’t pushing wokeness. Just an audience. It’s what mattered. The concept for the live action could’ve been interesting. Heck I thought the ship designs were fan made and on par to the anime designs themselves. But again the show didn’t live up to its hype like intended. Also the Faye actress did terrible damage control.

Correction: Faye was not cryogenically frozen because of a car accident. It was because of warp gate malfunction. Something that was hinted in another episode. EDIT: ALSO LOVE HOW COWBOY BEBOP is in AZ and the Netflix is in California. Just love it.

They should add a claim like "really-really-really loosely based on..."

I don't get what was so hard to do Faye's anime costume right for live action. Tons of cosplayers manage to pull it off all the time and without the kind of budget a NetFlix show would have. C'mon now...(insert eye roll, right here.)

SPIKE DID NOT DIE!!! I WILL NEVER EVER ACCEPT THAT! JET WENT TO GET HIM WHEN HE DIDN;T COME BACK AND HE NURSED HIM BACK! HR GOT HIT IN THE LEG! YOU CAN;T DIE FROIM THAT!

17:55 it’s like when Mattel rebooted Thomas.

I just watched the first episode of each show, before giving up on the live action one and continuing with the anime. 1) The casino job was a cool scene to start with, but then it went south. If there’s a hull breach in a space station, you just pull a lever and a shutter slams down in the exact location of the breach? Why is there even a switch, why isn’t it automatic? Not nitpicking, it’s just lazy writing. 2) the scene with the red-eye deal in Tijuana was much more tense and well-paced in the anime. The editing in the live action was lackluster in comparison. I didn’t watch past that scene. Animation has certain advantages in that it’s not limited by physics, but in this case there was no excuse, it was all in the editing.

22:15 The reason henchmen attack one at a time (especially when they're using swords) is so they don't get in each other's way or hurt each other.

Bebop wasn't expected to do well in Japan. Net's Bebop was expected to do well in the US. In that sense, the live action is faithful to the anime as they both defied the odds. 🙃

Cowboy Bebop could've easily been a solid live action. I'm surprised they went the campy power rangers looking route as opposed to a more marvel tv series route where it's gritty, atmospheric (Daredevil, Jessica Jones) but with some absurdity like Guardians of the Galaxy for example. They completely missed the mark with what people even liked about the original in the first place. This was such a missed opportunity.

The holograms had dark shadows ,,,,I'm I dumb or it's impossible?

Hi G.I. Gio. Since you asked nicely I will comment. I watched the Netflix Adaptation of Cowboy Bebop after watching the Anime. I watched the Netflix version until the end of all 10 episodes hoping there would be something redeemable about it, and I was proven wrong. You helped hit the nail on the head on exactly why there were so many shortcoming s with the adaptation-the writers did not understand the story. In other words, the original anime series of Cowboy Bebop is 100 times better. The Netflix adaptation, while worth laughing at for kicks, does not achieve the same effect of storytelling, character development nor cinematography as the animation.

I think Jet and spike worked just fine and wanted to see more of them, Faye was awful especially with the cringy one liners and the whole Jessica and Vincent thing was just hard to watch

The only thing that I love about the show was the music, and about the show I couldn't even finish the first episode that how bad it was.

The Cowboy Bebop 2021 showrunner Andre Nemec was also responsible for the failed US remake of the hit UK TV show Life on Mars. It explains so much.

Rest In Peace for Avatar the last Airbender and one piece. Leave anime alone 🤦🏾‍♂️

What got me in to anime in 90,s

In my opinon he problem with Netflix of course is rating but ... they want to create a show and characters that are loved by everyone.... i mean the character must be loved by everyone so they tries to makes them perfect without flaws, Spike was a man haunted by his past he couldn't leave his past. Faye was self centered but little by little she started to care for the guys... Jet was too possesive..that is why her love interest left him...all of them had flaws. and that is just part of the character... the approach of a hero is vey different for western and oriental society... western society looks at heros as perfect beings... even batman with all his darknes do not kill... or at least that is the main point. Anime bring scharacter, heros or protagonists very far from being perfects..so they makes them more humans. In their own stupidity NETFLIX want that the same show be loved by everyone so they want all markets lookin the same show... oh look this is anime...is cartoon so is for kid well we can add some mature stuff in order to be liked by everyone...let´s add profanity and sex scenes... Nor they understood the anime , and far worse they didn't understand the market to whom they want to get.

xD la risa de malvado 10:50 nice thing ahahaha

that is the problem with all anime adaptations. (dragonball, avatar, ghost in the shell........) they twist and missinterprate the storyline!!!

Nice video but just to be clear Faye didn't have a car accident she was on a spaceship with her parents when it broke apart and she was the only survivor out of the three.

it wasn't that they didn't understand the source material, they didn't care. all they wanted was to use a well-known anime/story with a built-in fanbase that they could screw over and get people to watch purely out of hate for what they changed. to say this is an adaptation is an insult to the anime and to the fans that loved it so much.

first got very high hope for one piece live action but now im nervious

From what I can tell it was a sinister hit job on Cowboy Bebop and anime. Curse you Netflix for letting it happen.

I took it upon myself to look up the writers behind the Netflix show and see what they've done in the past to make them the show's main writers. From the looks of it, not a lot. Most of the stuff they've worked on wouldn't convince you they've even heard of cowboy bebop. You would think they would get someone that worked on firefly or star trek or some detective show but nothing they wrote really shows for it. You would think they would hire a James Gunn or an Alex Garland. I mean cowboy bebop is a show that has the blue print and multiple genres to draw from. Its like getting a guy who wrote courtroom dramas to write a martial arts epic.

The Adaptation was Hella Mishandled and Yet People are still Bitter that it got canned due to the MASSIVE Backlash it got Like "Get over it it was bound to get criticized"

Julia spent too much time with Rhaegar Targaryan from Wish and actually became Daenerys and went mad at the end.

This might surprise you but I haven't watch Cowboy Bebop,both the Live Action and Anime versions,but one thing is for sure that it's bad ever since the Trailer drop,I watch Dragon Ball Evolution without any knowledge of the Anime and it was a mistake of my I will never repeat again,Anime adaptations are hard both Live Action ones are extremely difficult because the source material is larger and complicated and all that's coming out next is a One Piece and My Hero Academia Live Action adaptations which is divided,I will watch Cowboy Bebop and other Animes next Year,but now I have so unfinished Movie,Series,and Anime to watch before the Year ends.

22:28 that's not Vicious that's bitchous. The real Vicious is badass and actually lives up to his name

They changed the most important character plot points.and they changed characters into people they are not

i was hoping you would cover this. netflix should stop butchering anime adaption and just admit defeat that they cant produce something that was already great

Yeah, bit of a tiny snaffu. Faye was not in a car accident when she lost her memory. She was literally in a space shuttle crash.

Reigen voice from Mob Psycho 100: buying the anime on blu-ray is an excellent decision

Actually the actress' reaction to the toxic crowd was great. She's right, she doesn't have to look like the anime character exactly

What I don't understand is that Spike is Jewish and Jett is Native American, two under represented minorities. Why did they go with an Asian and a Black Guy to play the characters...if only for the purpose of that blackmail joke.

Julia pulled a Dragon Lady from Game of Thrones.

It's not that they didn't understand the show, it's that they wanted to disrespect the show by putting woke narratives. This is why Faye went from sexy femme fatale to foul mouthed lesbian.

The showrunner, or something, gave a much better explanation on why they couldn't do stunts with that outfit. But there are ways around that...

You haven’t been in the discord

Faye not realizing everything shes been taking for granted is finally coming to end until spike straight up tells her hes leaving and not coming back and her reaction to it, has always stuck with me. The way she pulls her gun on him and starts to cry will always hit me. It was fun and no one cared until we all realized it was over. And Netflix fucked that all up

Faye spazzed out when the gate exploded not from a car accident

Long video, but well thought out.

I will be waiting on I know your Flash armageddon review, just finished episode 4 and this shit is terrible. Only watching it because I've stuck with the show this far, might as well ride it out. Although I can't say I don't give up on shows (batwoman). But it's criminal how bad this once good show has become.

It feels like they were trying to turn the live action adaptation into an MCU style series.

I really hate what they did with Gren and Teddy Bomber.

I tried to defend this as much as I could after watching the first 2 episodes, hoping that a miracle would happen and it would become better in the remaining episodes but... It really is somewhat of an insult to the anime. I did start watching the anime this summer and I swear I have never had so much fun watching anything. With Netflix, they just added drama to unneeded places and made everyone look desperate and ridiculously serious for no good reason, especially Spike. I hated Faye's portrayal with passion, everything was fine with the anime version why did they have to change so many things it's beyond me. And Vicious and Julia? Ugh, how much I hated Julia at some point I wondered whether the actresses couldn't act, or the writers just gave her nothing to work with or both. And what was the deal with Jet Black hating Spike because he was in the Syndicate? Didn't Jet have a friend in the syndicate whose daughter he helped in one of the episodes in the anime? Why would Jet hate Spike for something that happened in a past he wasn't involved in? I get hating him that his daughter nearly died because of Vicious, but because he was in the syndicate? Why? 😂😂😂

I haven't watched either the live or the anime.... Netflix version doesn't make me want to watch either either.

That's how I felt when watching this adaptation: insulted.

Never heard of the controversy with the actress. Tried to watch it but couldn't get through one episode. So I don't know if it wasn't faithful. It wasn't *bad*. It just wasn't good. I tried a random anime about an ridiculously cautious and over=prepared hero after leaving episode 1 or live bepop and that anime was completely absorbing and I was up until 8am binging it all. And I loved Bebop anime but the live version didn't catch me at all.

Check out Steak's video Cowboy Bebop and the West. He made it 2 years ago, well before the live action, but predicted the 45%RT score 🤣 But seriously, he has some beautiful insight into the anime.

Everyone said that the live action show got Jet Black right. So far you’re the only one who see they totally screwed Jet’s character. I agree with you man, why is it they get a black man they either gotta make him a weak beta male or a big soft toughie? I hate everything about the Cowboy Bebop show on Netflix.

. Really liked ur video tho cuz I have love the anime for decades and I couldn’t even get past the 1st live episode so thx for breaking down the live show cuz I could never watch it lol OMG PEOPLE STOP MAKING VIDEOS WITH THE DAMN STUPID TIME STAMPS!!!! It’s the most annoying feature when rewinding 5-10 seconds and rewinds 25 minutes instead

Yes to all of this!

I watched it,knowing nothing about it and I liked it!

Anime Spike: Someone else lights his cigarette for him in the intro Netflix Spike: Lights his own cigarette himself in the intro

At least Yoko Kanno scored the music... that's about it... Cowboy Bebop Ending Theme guitar ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-f6M-oWsRE9Q.html Macross Plus Voices guitar 超時空要塞マクロス ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HrF1WXNTyVk.html King of Fighters XV Krizalid's boss stage theme ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hp7THmIQiXk.html